fstbttms,
Thanks for the confirmation. When I see boats hauled most seem to be sporting bronze .. or what's left of bronze to see.

I got the idea of Armor All as I bought an old Buick and the PO bathed the car in AA. on the freeway in the rain the water beads up and streams away. That was over 12 years ago and it still does. I thought if it hung in there at 70mph air speed it may work on my prop. Lots of fouling can occur in Alaska but about half as much as in Washington state. I've put the AA on every time I was out for the last 8 years or so and never had a barnacle but I don't know if the prop would have gone clean w/o the AA. But it only took a minute to apply so why not. Anybody else done it? I've mentioned it before on TF.

No Eric but am considering doing it at the next haul out. We don't exactly have a barnacle problem in the freshwater Delta so won't be much info for you saltwater guys. I get more general slime that's easily removed with light agitation and a good run at speed.

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Craig

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they've been fooled - Mark Twain

Craig,
The only service the Armor All provides is (hopefully) a surface that is slick enough to prevent growing things from attaching themselves to the prop or whatever. Not poisonous at all .... that I know of.

It could be tested if we had some way of testing the slickness of a propeller blade. Then it would be simply put the stuff on, measure it's slickness and then again at next haulout.

Recently I heard about an ultrasonic transducer caller Barnacle Zapper. I have trouble with growth on the props; paint doesnt last more than 6 months here in south Florida. Does anybody that lives in a warm water area have experience with this product? Very expensive but the testimonials on their website seem very impressive.

Of course the testimonials on the manufacturer's main advertising venue are impressive. Do you think the they would say, "Our product is so ineffective that we challenge you to find anybody actually using it"?

Various companies have sold "Ultra Sonic" barnacle repellers since the 1970's.
None of them work. There was even one that was meant to be attached to a radio and you played the barnacles rock and roll through it. Turns out that barnacles like to dance.

Prior to this season, I mentioned somewhere that I had had a discussion with Pettit about bottom paint always being ineffective on my bronze skeg bar. They told me that copper bottom became depleated as soon as it is applied to underwater metal unless there is a barrier coat (years of dead bottom paint can be a barrier). Not just a primer, a barrier coat.

They went on to say that copper-free bottom paint does work because it is not netralized my the base metal and of course works by a different method.

Being too cheap to purchase non-copper paint just for the skeg bar, I decided to apply epoxy as a barrier after grinding off the bottom paint and primer to bare metal. One straight coat and 2 thickened w/ silica coats.

So now nearing the end of the season here on Cape Cod, MA I am reporting back that there is not a single barnicle, no growth at all on my skeg bar with this treatment.

For comparison, I will try a pictire of the bar at November haul out last season growth was right over the depleted paint.

As has been discussed before I am a Prop Speed fan.
I get 2 years and I haul my boat out every 12 months.
Sometimes I use my boat a lot and sometimes she stays tied up for months and this is when the Prop Speed pays off.
Cheers
Benn

__________________
"When I die I hope my wife doesn't sell my toys for what I told her I paid for them"
Money: It's made round to go round , not flat to stack.
"Get out and do it"

Prop Speed is the way to go, in my opinion. I've attached two photos, one a close up of the other. The photos show minimal growth after about four years and about 500+ hours of operation. The boat is kept in a brackish environment. However, nine months of the year the water is more salt that fresh.

Prop Speed is the way to go, in my opinion. I've attached two photos, one a close up of the other. The photos show minimal growth after about four years and about 500+ hours of operation. The boat is kept in a brackish environment. However, nine months of the year the water is more salt that fresh.

Note: The castle nut did not receive a coating of Prop Speed.

Vallejo is a low fouling environment in any case. Note that in addition to little or no fouling growth on the prop, there is almost no Prop Speed left as well.

For those that know me I have been encouraged to contribute in other areas.

I did consider starting a new thread but there is a perfectly acceptable one here so resurrecting it should allow previous contributors an update.

Treating running gear can be a real issue as in many places where fouling is severe a prop can be smothered in barnacles, if left uncoated, within 3 months. I know this as we trialed a fancy nano technology aerosol product from Germany, complete waste of time, but after 3 months we ground the prop down and tried again, complete waste of time, we ground off - in 3 months we had a prop covered in barnacles.

We have tried Prop Speed and its 'OK' provided you can keep the surface unbroken. If you hit anything in the water the surface is very soft, can break, and this appears to give a toe hold for growth. Once you have growth and try to get it off you can exacerbate the problem. Its also expensive.

We found we were only getting 12 months life (but this was not too big an issue as we only got 12 months from the anodes).

We had it applied by professionals and we applied ourselves - its not difficult, but difficult to buy as an amateur and the pack sizes are large - so good for a 'group' purchase as it cannot be stored and kept.

Like Prop Speed and Prop Gold the key is in the preparation and application (not difficult but you do need to follow the instructions - if you do it yourself, as we do). Very important is grinding down the running gear correctly, there are a variety of abrasive that fit an anglegrinder that are suitable (one looks like a resin and abrasive impregnated kitchen scrubber).

Velox needs a primer and then the active top coat.

An advantage to Velox is that once the surface is primed then providing the primer is sound when you come to reapply you only need to lightly abrade, clean and then apply fresh top (active) coat. Being a conventional paint you can buy a pack, primer and top coat, store and use some more next time. Its also cheaper than Prop Gold/Speed.

We have been trialing both Prop Gold and Velox and after 12 months both are as good though Velox does have a noticeable edge (but we are on a swing mooring and maybe one side gets more sunlight). However, as we do all our own servicing, the idea of simply power washing, light abrasion and re-coating has great appeal - and currently I think we will use Velox on both props in 2 weeks time (when we will do the AF).

Velox gets good reports in Europe. Again its relatively new in Oz and again, not many independent reports.

One other advantage of Velox - it comes in a few different colours but only in white in Oz. White turns out to be advantageous as you can see if there is anything foreign whereas Prop Speed/Gold tends to go dark with time.

All of these treatments work best if you can use the boat, or a least turn the prop over, regularly.

I'm puzzled at the common practice of using a diver regularly. We moor in a high growth area, Sydney, warm ish waters and lots of sunshine. We use an ablative paint and as long as we use the boat the hull stays clean, though we do get a persistent slime round the water line (which is advantageously removed). The props stay clean for months, unless the silicone of the Prop Speed/Gold is damaged - and cleaning makes it worse (but once growth starts you do need to clean).

We think the trick is to use an ablative paint whose wear matches the lifetime of prop treatment and anodes - and getting this balance is dependent on the frequency of boat use and the fouling rate locally. The painter might know about fouling rate - but has no idea how you use the boat, compared to the one next door.

If you know you will not use the boat for 3 months and fouling is bad - then a diver would be good.

I'm puzzled at the common practice of using a diver regularly. We moor in a high growth area, Sydney, warm ish waters and lots of sunshine. We use an ablative paint and as long as we use the boat the hull stays clean, though we do get a persistent slime round the water line (which is advantageously removed). The props stay clean for months, unless the silicone of the Prop Speed/Gold is damaged - and cleaning makes it worse (but once growth starts you do need to clean).

We think the trick is to use an ablative paint whose wear matches the lifetime of prop treatment and anodes - and getting this balance is dependent on the frequency of boat use and the fouling rate locally. The painter might know about fouling rate - but has no idea how you use the boat, compared to the one next door.

If you know you will not use the boat for 3 months and fouling is bad - then a diver would be good.

Jonathan

I submit that your mooring is not not actually in a region of high fouling. Either that or you have a high tolerance for a foul bottom. In-water hull cleaning is a regular, necessary part of year-round boat maintenance in places like California, Florida and one would think, much (if not all) of Austrailia. I service many hundreds of boats here in the Bay Area (both power and sail), and there is not one amonst them that does not require regular hull cleaning, regardless of use frequency or anti fouling paint type.